In the latest manifestation of the long-running phenomenon known as Palin-hatred, several liberal and left sites have excoriated her for wearing what they assumed was a black memorial bracelet meant to commemorate a member of the military killed in action, but bearing the name of her very-much-alive son Track who has served in Iraq.

The venom unleashed was of the usual variety:

[Wearing such a bracelet] demonstrates a horrifying contempt for those who gave their last full measure of devotion or an almost unbelievable ignorance of the importance of symbols in American history.

But it turns out it was actually the Palin-haters who demonstrated the horrifying contempt and the almost unbelievable ignorance — or at the very least, a failure to use Google. In fact, Palin was wearing something known as a Deployed HeroBracelet, meant to honor the service of a loved one who is still living. Palin’s bracelet was not even black but bronze, and was given her as a gift by the makers, who also presented one to Joe Biden in his son’s name.

The author of the original piece about the bracelet, Eric Robinson, at least had the grace to apologize. But not before a torrent of contemptuous hatred had already been displayed in the comments sections of several left-wing blogs.

It is hardly surprising, however, that many of Palin’s detractors jumped at the chance to blast her for the bracelet without even bothering to confirm the basic facts. It was a case of assuming the worst, seeing what they expected to see. They considered the incident to be only one more piece of evidence confirming what they believed they already knew, and what they feel should be self-evident to any thinking person: Sarah Palin is a stupid, lying, child-exploiting, shameless, opportunistic right-wing nut. That there might be a more benign explanation for any of her behavior does not even occur to them, and therefore no further fact-checking would be needed.

This rush to judgment is not the exception but rather the rule when criticizing Sarah. Palin-hatred is as old — and as persistent — as her presence on the national scene (that’s “hatred,” as distinguished from mere disagreement on issues). There have been countless explanations for it. If anything, the phenomenon is over-determined, representing a toxic brew of class warfare, misogyny, envy (much of this coming from women), and elitism.

One of the many things that so infuriates Palin-haters is that she has not adopted the proper veneer of bland sameness that most people in public life affect, a smoothness that often serves to even out idiosyncrasies of accent and regionalism. Ms. Palin refuses to do this. She sports not only a bracelet that marks her as the proud mother of a son who has been in the military, but an accent that marks her as from the far north and simultaneously as “country.”

Many people read the latter as “uneducated,” and therefore “stupid.” The assumption is that Palin doesn’t change these things — she continues to drop her “g’s” at the end of “ing” words, for example — because she cannot do so, rather than because she chooses not to do so. But that assumption may be as incorrect as so many of the other assumptions about Palin.

It may have been Palin’s choice to keep her distinctive personal characteristics rather than bury them, including retaining her accent and even celebrating it. I believe it was a choice; a woman with a will as ferocious as hers could easily have altered her speech pattern with a little bit of effort. Just ask Henry Higgins.

Palin refuses to play the usual games in order to be in with the in-crowd. Her speech and mannerisms express her solidity with many of her constituents, the very people the current Democratic Party and its leaders have marginalized and ridiculed (and largely lost), the ones Obama was describing in his “bitter clinger” speech at a Democratic fundraiser in San Francisco, speaking to fellow Democrats when they thought they were talking amongst themselves. The particular demographic Obama was referring to are the people whom many liberal Democrats do not trust or respect — and they most definitely neither trust nor respect Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin is a college graduate and a woman of no small accomplishment. But she has stubbornly exemplified and even embraced rural working class values and patterns of speech. She wears it all with pride, just as she wore the bracelet: the hunting and fishing, the down-home phrases, the salt-of-the-earth values, the work ethic, the devotion to church and family, the playful wink. These things endear her to her supporters, but mark her as a knuckle-dragging Nascar-loving imbecile to her detractors, who remain smug in their superiority.

If one watches this YouTube video of some of the recent typically chortling mockery of Palin for writing notes on her hand, it appears evident that the most important function of all of this may be as a bonding exercise, a fail-safe device for those who exhibit it to recognize each other and congratulate themselves on their own excellent taste and judgment. In this way they are signaling that they are part of the cognoscenti, an elevated group with the sense to know — and the boldness to state — that Sarah Palin is beneath them, and beneath all thinking, cultured people.

In doing so, they only serve to show their own bigotry, and to further alienate an entire group of voters. But they are either unaware of that fact, or consider it a small price to pay for a chance to demonstrate their own superiority.

183 Comments, 182 Threads

1.
tehag

“[Wearing such a bracelet] demonstrates a horrifying contempt for those who gave their last full measure of devotion or an almost unbelievable ignorance of the importance of symbols in American history.”

And this from people who only support soldiers when they kill their officers. Their ignorance is exceeded by their rage which is exceeded only by their hypocrisy.

It pains me to say this, but one of the more classier reactions to Palin happened to come from Michelle Obama. MO refused to comment or pass judgment on “Larry King Live” because she didn’t know anything more about Palin other than what she’d seen in the Media.

There is another reason why the elites fear people like Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh: they cannot compete intellectually! Palin is not a super genius—but she far better educated than Barack Obama. College drop out Limbaugh is one the very best political analysts of our era. He kicks butt, and takes no prisoners. The softer disciplines within the Ivy League schools are often nothing less than scam operations. Their graduates are mostly dummies who lack the ability to think and follow a logical argument. Things were bad enough in the early 1950s when Bill Buckley criticized his alma mater, Yale University. The affirmative action policies enacted in the mid to late 1960s have resulted in an out disaster. Grade inflation became the norm. The rational and fair way to treat anyone who graduated from an Ivy League school is to consider them an idiot until proven otherwise.

They are still insisting that the essentially flat temperature range over the last decade hasn’t happened, that the earth continues to warm rapidly at an unprecedented rate, and that it’s all the fault of humans.

The kind of people that jump to conclusions will do it on a variety of topics.

You forgot to mention that Palin is a member of a group that most societies say it is permissible to hate (along with Jews, gays, blacks, short people, fat people etc. etc.) There is even a word for it: misogyny.
“In psychology, Sigmund Freud defined hate as an ego state that wishes to destroy the source of its unhappiness… Hatred can be based on fear of its object, justified or unjustified, or past negative consequences of dealing with that object.” http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Hate
But when the source of unhappiness is seen as too powerful to destroy, or society says it is not OK to hate, e.g. a boss, a mother/father, the Pope, you need an object on which it is OK to project all those hateful feelings.
Ditto for love. When you are unable to love a real person you need an object that is far removed from your life on which to project all those feelings of love. Which explains Obama’s attraction for so many people.

#6. Agreed. I believe one of the main psychological benefits of being a liberal is that one’s bad feelings can be blamed on a scapegoat–no burden of responsibility. The Old Marxist Media daily declares who will be hated today, and the bleatings pour forth from the angry sheeple.

In the novel 1984, goldstein performed the role of hated.

Off topic a little, but the left have dusted themselves off and are back to claiming lots of snow proves global warming–just as lack of snow did…

sameer, you just proved liberals/progressives are sorely lacking in a sense of humor. Many of Palin’s answers in that interview with Curic (including seemingly unable to provide the material she reads) were given in subtle disgust and sarcasm. Curic was treating her like she was some hick from the north that surely couldn’t even read…so Palin gave the ridiculousness right back to her in her answers…which is so very Sarah. Palin’s sense of humor and incredulity comes out at times, and it’s very entertaining to watch her mindf*** with people who exhibit disrespect and underestimate her.

Cupid: actually, I do mention it, in this sentence: “If anything, the phenomenon is over-determined, representing a toxic brew of class warfare, misogyny, envy (much of this coming from women), and elitism.”

Sarah Palin is probably not my candidate of choice, but I like her. Is there something terrible about being likable and seeming ordinary?

If I’ve heard once, I’ve heard it a thousand times from beanie headed progressive types. I want somebody for President that is more intelligent than me! So we have witnessed the capability of the Ivy League dominance in Washington for at least 20 years now. The Harvard Law Professors, the Columbia journalists, the Princeton and Penn economists, etc… and I’m convinced you go to any high school, randomly select 536 students, assign one by lottery to be President, and show better judgment, make better decisions, have more character, and implement better results.

So if these people are so good, so special, so intellectual, so superior, and born to lead, how is it we could get better decisions flipping a coin?

Barack Wormer, Rahm Marmalard, Harry Neidermeyer, and Babs “Boxer” Jansen for leadership? Where’s the Delta House when you need them?

sameer:
Not reading a newspaper makes one not too bright? I haven’t read a newspaper since the web was made available. Does that make this former Sr. Research Chemist “not very bright”?

Original philosophy is in pretty short supply all around, let’s see there’s the whole “spreading other people’s money around,” but everyone knows Marx beat him to that one a long time ago. Then there’s the “civilian police force a large and well funded as the military,” but Himmler beat him to that one a long time ago. Then there’s “bowing to the emperor of Japan,” but Hirohito’s dad had that idea back in ’41. Oh, I know, “let’s spend other people’s money to make more people dependent on government service to insure they always vote for us,” opps, FDR got there first. Yes indeed, original philosophy is as hard to find as a good newspaper.

But I used to hear the same message about Reagan up and until about 10 years ago, when it finally became so apparent that the “highly educated” morons from the left were always wrong about Reagan, even they gave up lying and quietly conceded. Palin is but the latest victim in the feckless Kingdom of Leftyville screeching “… … not very bright.”

As to your charges of original philosophy? Cutting taxes is original with Palin?

Leftists are told by their thought leaders that they are smart and conservatives are dumb, and the sheeple have neither the intellectual wherewithal nor the inclination to evaluate the truth of that, so they believe it. I watched the Palin interviews with hostile leftist media figures, and she was so poised and articulate the left had to invent silly pretexts to declare she blundered.

She didn’t read enough liberal media materials; she didn’t know about the so-called ‘bush doctrine’. And of course, lacking anything of substance to attack her with, the left went after her children…

I think the hatred for Palin is similar to the talisman that the ignorant and superstitious people of old used to ward off evil. The libs are so confused by her and how she out smarts all of their elites, that they must have something in common to keep her at bay. It reminds me of the band that continued to play on the Titanic while it was sinking. They all knew the outcome but put on a good face.

The question remains, is Palin being savaged because the intelligentsia are underestimating her or because they, in fact, know what she may be capable of and they fear her?

RE: the writing on the palm, I believe that the Beltway Brahmins will find that their derision of Sarah Palin for this act has instantly alieniated them from anyone who has ever written a reminder on the palm of his/her hand. That is no small group of voters.

This came up on another thread. Someone suggested that she wear some crazy article of clothing in order to draw their ridiculous, hateful venom. I responded that she could wear some ugly scarf. They’d lampoon her, only to later have it discovered that it was a gift from some dying kid, or whatever.

Little did I know that this was already playing out with this bracelet.

This is just so perfect. A Hero Bracelet derided. She wears her son’s service with pride, and they attack her for it. They attack the sacrosanct. Just too perfect. Bwahahaha.

Did they attack Biden? Does he wear his? Did anyone notice? Btw, has anyone even SEEN him, lately? I hope he hasn’t succumbed to some “black helo” moment.

Sameer is not very bright. There’s no getting around that. He can’t even keep up with new information, lest it shatter debunked memes he’s been fed by the left-wing MSM. And he has no original philosophy of his own besides “Palin is stupid…the media told me so.”

“So we have witnessed the capability of the Ivy League dominance in Washington for at least 20 years now.”

The Ivy League scam jobbers have victimized the majority of Americans. Their credentials have often been obtained by fraud. It is an open secret that Harvard professors give unearned grades to their students. Radical Van Jones candidly admits that the attended Yale Law because it doesn’t even grade its students. Wealthy fathers and mothers have made a tacit agreement with the Ivy League administrators: you give my kid a phony soft science degree—and we will fork over a minimum of $200,000.

The typical Ivy Leaguer is an idiot. Such an individual knows little about economics, foreign policy, or anything else for that matter. These folks are engaging in fraudulent behavior. By all rights, RICO investigations are totally justified. Most Ivy League administrators should be arrested and read their Miranda rights.

Ah, the “in crowd,” an expression that reminds me of high school, and the insipid high school student body politics. A lot of the same people who were good at it went on to become SDS–students for a democratic society, as if society wasn’t democatic. Before the AID’s episode of the 80s the in crowd argued in the 70s that there was no down side or negative social costs to the gay life style. Somehow the progressive human had escaped Darwinian natural selection at the biological level on Polk Street: Party on! Oops.

#23. AF_Vet – I’m not the one running for VP or president. The onus to prove intellectual curiosity about global issues (aside from terra and taxes and death panels — oh my!) is on Palin.

I feel she does not pass muster. I don’t knock her for writing on her hand, or any of the non-gaffes that result in predictable media pile-on. But she does not possess the overriding philosophy and intellectual heft that I like to see in a leader. I think her position on climate change, evolution and government abuse of power in the war on terror are all anti-intellectual as well.

#22 sameer (samir) – I’ll type this really slowly so you can get it. She botched the question, because she wasn’t ready for such an INSULTING question!

She was a sitting Governor, and she was essentially asked, “Can you read? Just how stupid and uneducated are you?” How offensive is that? An exec’s job is to read, read, read. Most of your time, you spend keeping informed. Only occasionally, are you called upon to make some decision, but that decision is KEY. (Her record on such decisions is sterling, btw. She was fine Governor.)

The right answer would have been, “Ugh. Sarah can read.” She was just unprepared for such an unconscionably LOW BLOW. What does a decent American say to that? Nothing prepares you.

They had hours of that interview, and they left most of it on the cutting room floor, in order to show her in the worst possible light. It was a hatchet job from the beginning. And YOU bought it! You’re still buying it. How stupid does that make YOU?

Her speech and mannerisms express her solidity with many of her constituents, the very people the current Democratic Party and its leaders have marginalized and ridiculed (and largely lost), the ones Obama was describing in his “bitter clinger” speech at a Democratic fundraiser in San Francisco, speaking to fellow Democrats when they thought they were talking amongst themselves.

Bang on target! This and many other statements from you are why they make me want to have your children. (BTW, I am a guy and know you are female – but that is beside the point.)

Why do they hate us normal Americans? Because they can. I went over to the cesspit that is ‘Crooks and Liars’ (apt name, eh?) to read what they said. I am glad I have not performed the daily ablutions yet. The hate is all pervasive for those they consider as beneath them. Can you say elitist?

The soft science Ivy League graduates are easily guilt tripped by those exhorting the alleged wisdom of John Rawls and john Kenneth Galbraith. They realize their own degrees are fraudulently obtained. Why shouldn’t they feel guilty? Barack Obama and Caroline “you know, you know” Kennedy graduated from Harvard. The Kennedy family types believe that awarding an unearned degree to a “person of color” justifies the same to their less than brilliant sons and daughters.

She hasn’t shown that she is intellectually curious about the world around her.

Thanks for bringing up the Reds’ favorite canard about “intellectual curiosity.” Maybe she already knows how many states there are, or that Auschwitz was in Poland and liberated by the Soviets, not us, and that Austrians don’t speak Austrian.

Meanwhile, the Messiah is curious. Very curious. As in “a curious character, indeed.” That kind of curious.

sameer writes, “And she has no original philosophy of her own besides “cut taxes.””

Pick up a copy of Thomas Sowell’s “Intellectuals and Society”. You’ll come to realize that most of the ideas today’s progressive “elite” routinely spout have been common currency for most of the last century. No matter how divorced from reality, no matter how frequently they’ve been discredited, they keep regurgitating the same tired vision.

And what’s wrong with a philosophy that’s patently unoriginal but based on common sense and human experience? Like the idea that government should live within its means, that allies and friends should be treated different from enemies, that criminals and terrorists shouldn’t be coddled, that government is not the answer to every question.

sameer (#30) writes: “I think her position on climate change, evolution and government abuse of power in the war on terror are all anti-intellectual as well.”

So what? The intellectuals-in-charge have not demonstrated particularly good results over the past 50 years (from Robert McNamara’s mishandling of Viet Nam to Stansfield Turner’s gutting of the CIA and Jimmy Carter’s mishandling of Iran).

I think that many of our best presidents could be described as anti-intellectual; Truman and Reagan come immediately to mind.

She ran a state with a $25B budget, she trounced the corrupt old-boys network of her own party and she successfully negotiated for her state with a foreign power (Canada) and one of the largest corporations on the globe (Exxon-Mobil). Exactly why does this NOT qualify her intellect?

An intellect is much much more than an Ivy league degree and dropping names such as Wittgenstein, Hegel and Flaubert at a cocktail party.

“If anything, the phenomenon is over-determined, representing a toxic brew of class warfare, misogyny, envy (much of this coming from women), and elitism.”

I think you missed the biggest factor — fear of a political powerhouse. She could beat any Democrat in the country right today, and the Republican hierarchy know that she will not put up with any nonsense from them, witness her performance in Alaska.

Sameer:
“But she does not possess the overriding philosophy and intellectual heft that I like to see in a leader.”

Well la-da-freakin-da! We’d better make sure we continue to vote in those intellectual and philosophical heavyweights that have thoroughly butt-screwed us so handily in the past 20 years. I mean, what do we want with someone with real-life experience running a company (economic and business experience), sitting on a gas/oil comission for the State of Alaska (energy policy experience), runnning a city as mayor (executive experience) and Governor of a State (yet even more executive experience). Yeah, she needs more experience (don’t know what kind your majesty demands she have, but she rustle some up right quick). Maybe she could go to an Ivy League scool, or become a community organizer. Yeah…that’ll do it; then maybe we could nominate her for a Nobel!

“I think her position on climate change, evolution and government abuse of power in the war on terror are all anti-intellectual as well.”

Oh, this is going to be good…please, please DO elaborate! I want to hear specifics as to why you think this is so. Let me get some popcorn first.

Plain is niot very bright. There’s no getting around that. She can’t even name a newspaper she reads

Right. It is brighter to pay good money in order to have some leftist wanabee who graduated in soft science (that is people who are not bright enough to do hard science, not bright enough for litterature or law and not bright enough to sweep strets) tell you what to think and who to vote

For all those who like Palin (because she’s Plain speaking) let’s hope that those on the left with Palin Derangement Syndrome keep up such nonsense. By the time 2012 comes along and assuming the Governor has decided to run for POTUS, the lefties with PDR will have made themselves look like the blithering idiots they are, and in the process, have marginalized themselves.

They have been able to do so because of their immense and unearned power. Those who dared take them to task often had their careers and lives severely damaged. The “elites” have been getting away with such nonsense for ages. It is starting to unravel. The election of Barack Obama may have been the final straw. It is painfully obvious that the never earned his academic credentials. Most voters foolishly cast their ballots for him due to his Harvard Law degree. In other words, they were played for fools.

Happy Birthday to governor Palin. I’m sorry for the way my fellow citizens have treated you. Righty and Lefty it makes no sense. I wish the day would come when we judge and choose our political leader on their accomplishments, record and charachter. Instead of the steady diet of trash we are fed by the media and the fools who follow them like sheep being led to slaughter. It’s that very mindset that brought us Barack Obama.

Neo-Neocon (9):
Yes, you did mention the word “misogyny”. But my point was: you forgot to mention that misogny is sanctioned by most societies as an acceptable form of hatred of a group (women). Therefore the Palin-haters don’t feel that they are doing anything wrong in expressing hatred of Palin as a means of proving their membership of what they think is an “IN” group.
After all, even Obama called Palin a pig in lipstick to do that didn’t he?

Sarah Palin, and the reaction to her, is a fascinating case in modern American politics. I expect that it’ll become more common for this to occur, if the Republicans nominate someone else in 2012. I predicted in another comments section that if Bobby Jindal is nominated for Pres. or VP, there’ll be a liberal birther movement.

But Palin, specifically, clearly isn’t qualified for national office as President or Vice-President, mainly because she isn’t part of the Ruling Class. Consider these facts:

1) She doesn’t have a law degree from an Ivy League university that she doesn’t use.

2) She doesn’t have a robber baron ancestor who left her a pile of money in a trust fund, thus convincing her to enter elected office to manage everyone else’s life in an attempt to make up for her wealthy, and unearned, lifestyle.

3) Her Daddy wasn’t in politics; he didn’t serve as a Senator, or even the Mayor of Baltimore.

4) She didn’t marry strategically. Her husband isn’t politically connnected, isn’t the offspring of a Chicago Alderman, for instance, and he doesn’t have an enormous real estate or investment portfolio, to keep the family comfortable. Even worse, he works a *blue collar* job! –GASP–

5) Lastly, she made her career rocking the boat politically. Never mind that most of the people who fell overboard are Republicans; that merely emphasizes that she’d be willing to throw Democrats over too. Congress and government infrastructure contain thousands, maybe millions of useless mouths who have political connections to thank for their positions; another critic of this situation in Washington terrifies them, especially a young, attractive female one who was effective at the State level in chasing such people out of office.

Until she changes these things, or figures out that they disqualify her from higher office, she’s going to excite the same derision and disgust from the left.

#30 Sameer – what does ‘intellectual’ and ‘anti-intellectual’ mean? I’ve noticed these words tossed around quite a bit lately but I wonder what people mean by them.

Do you mean knowledgeable about the history of the world? Obama is quite deficient in that. Do you mean knowledgeable about political theory and able to tell the difference between abiding by a constitution and redefining that constitution as flexible and malleable according to whim and will? What do you mean by these terms?

I certainly think that a leader ought to be knowledgeable about world and national history and about the infrastructure of governance of the US. I feel that Obama is deficient in these areas but I don’t define this as ‘anti-intellectual’ but as ignorance.

What I see is a serious problem in the Obama administration is an arrogant elitism. This is strangely similar to the beliefs and behavior of the 18th c. European landowners who considered only themselves suitable to lead and rule. The hoi polloi masses, engaged in ‘trade’ were sneered at as ‘common’ and ‘anti-intellectual’. The ‘progressives’ of the Obama administration behave exactly like these 18th c. elitists, in their contempt for Congress, for the people, the Tea Parties, and their rejection of dissent.

As for ‘original philosophy’ – what do you mean? There’s no original philosophy about governance. You are either top down authoritariana or ‘bricolage’ bottom up and local. Read Aristote, Plato..and read Karl Popper’s ‘The Open Society and its Enemies’. There’s no ‘original’ philosophy about economics. You are either for intrusion or not. So what the heck do you mean?

It’s amazing that the rabid left’s hatred and contempt for Sarah Palin can even trump their hatred and contempt for the military.

Sarah is valuable not as a candidate or potential officeholder, but as a symbol and a lightning rod. She represents Middle America, and every time the Left assaults her they reveal how much they truly despise their fellow-countrymen.

Palin hatred is a wonderful thing! Can you imagine how much money she’ll be able to raise for non-criminal candidates for Congress later this year. And, the captive, commie media will spread the message all for nothing. I still don’t understand why they are so terrified of her. The only thing I can figure is that Keith and Chrissie know that many normal people switch to them to see what kind of stupidity they’ll come up with after she speaks.
Actually, I believe Keith and Chrissie have filled the terrible TV comedy void caused by the untimely and tragic deaths of Howdy Doody’s sidekick and Soupy Sales.
And, watch. Sarah knows how to manipulate them. She’ll be able to divert attention from some Obama scam by doing something incidental.

You nailed it – the liberal wannabe elites are reacting to Palin’s intentional epatez les bourgeois behavior. It makes Palin all the more amazing that she is intentionally generating this frenzied hatred. I thought she didn’t have a chance to be President, but given the skill with which she is picking her enemies and making her arguments, I may change my mind.

It is not s much hatred as the venomous contempt of those who truly believe that receiving degrees from “institutes of higher learning” equates with intellectual achievement and entitles them to immediate employment in a government job as an environmental protection dictator. These are people who, if left in the forests of Alaska, wouldn’t last 24 hours because they aren’t as smart as a cub scout – miserable little military-indoctrinated bigot.

I like the term “bitter clinger”. The conservative surge should adopt it: The Bitter Clinger Movement” has a better, sardonic, ring than “Tea-Party Movement” and it provides at zinger at Chairman KowTow.

ETAB asks: “#30 Sameer – what does ‘intellectual’ and ‘anti-intellectual’ mean? I’ve noticed these words tossed around quite a bit lately but I wonder what people mean by them.”

Allow me to explain. These are just fancy terms for “smart” and “stupid”. But they’re really code words for “Democrat” and “Republican”. Being a Democrat automatically makes you a genius, and being a Republican makes you a moron. I know that sounds silly, but it’s how people on the left think.

I gave up reading newspapers because they are purveyors of error. I would read articles written about some incident of which I had actual involvement, and the reporter would have the facts wrong. And no ‘reporter’ ever replied to my letters of correction. No replies at all, let alone a thank-you note. It is like they just don’t care that their stories are false.

As Mark Twain said, “If you read the newspapers, you are mis-informed.”

Plus, if I waste time with newspapers, I never will finish reading The City of God.

I hope we figure out some way to use this. Either set liberals in front of windmills while showing Palin on a TV or Palin starts playing rope-a-dope [more] with the left to show the moderates what they are all about…

“#16 PM – What else can I say? She hasn’t shown that she is intellectually curious about the world around her.”

Of course you guys just say this about anyone not on your side. Same line was used about Bush a lot. Didn’t matter how many books he read, how much he traveled, how many people from other cultures he reached out to, whatever. It’s just sort of a throw away line with no objective meaning… ergo it can be applied to anyone.

It’s a class thing. Sarah gives off a distinct lower middle class vibe. Upper middle class types cannot stand it that “one of them” could attain to power over “one of us.” And by cannot stand it I mean that it fills them with physical revulsion. You have to grow up upper middle class, as I did, to get the extent of barely contained rage in those of that class when a son or daughter of The People presumes to govern them.

Smart is the least of achievements . Many smart people ski into avalanches or swim with great white sharks . The number of smart people in the grave is far and away larger than the obedient . The truth is written on our hearts ,not our brains.

I love Sarah Palin. Was impressed by articles I read about her prior to her hooking up with McCain. The Weekly Standard did a few articles on her performance as governor of Alaaska and they were very complementary. Let people believe she is a fool and a dope. She is neither. Even the doofus Robert Gibbs drags the president down by jumping into the fray. The fact that she drives the left into salivating paroxysms of rage makes her A okay in my book. She is being instrumental in driving the GOP back to principles that will turn this country around and get rid of the charlatans in the Whitehouse, senate and congress. It is an exciting time to be an American. A conservative American

Sameer-smear of Palin is typical of an empty barrel. Noise. Palin is great as a mom, wife, friend, governor and American. The fear that the unwashed elite “progressive” Democrats spew at her is perfect evidence that she is a good person. They are afraid of her and for good reason. She will crush them everywhere but Hollywood.

One thing is patently clear, Sameer has not read any of Gov. Palin’s FaceBook writings, has not heard Chris Wallace’s defense of Sarah, and has not read David Broder’s column on the Wash Post. Broder said: “The Lady is good.” Get informed because people’s opinions are changing and you will do well to catch up.

Let see now. (Strokes chin) Palin has been mayor of a city, governor of a state, a vice-presidential candidate, and will make well over a million dollars this year. Who is stupid? Who is jealous? Who is fearful? Who is arrogant? Certainly not Sarah Palin. Who then?

sameer:”Palin is not very bright…. She can’t even name a newspaper she reads.”

Actually, not reading the obsolete, lamestream media is proof of her intelligence, not the opposite. Most intelligent people have abandoned newspapers and their left-wing editorializing masquerading as “news” long ago.

On the other hand, the fact that you value newspapers speaks volumes about you, and none of it is complimentary.

I am obliged to confess I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.

I’d like to draw your attention to the “erudite,” “intellectual” and “scholarly” analysis of Sarah Palin’s speech posted by Robin Lackoff (wife of Michael Lakoff whose last name Rush so eloquently notes “rhymes with…”) at the UC Berkeley blog (http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2010/02/10/listening-to-palin/). I would particularly like to point out the profound linguistic analysis (“She forces us to take her seriously even when there’s no good reason to do so.”).

P.S. to my fellow Californians: The Lackoffs are what passes for intellectual and professorial in CA’s institutions of Higher Learning, and you chumps pay their salaries. You decide if it’s money well-spent.

Honestly, I wasn’t that thrilled when Palin was nominated for V.P. I would have preferred someone with a bit more solid record. Of course, the initial response by the Obama Campaign of “she’s only marginally more qualified than Barack” (paraphrased) was hilarious.

But, the more frequent and more vitriolic the attacks from the Left, the more I grew to like her. Anyone they hate that much HAS to be a good person.

#62 stuart williamson:
“It is not s much hatred as the venomous contempt of those who truly believe that receiving degrees from “institutes of higher learning” equates with intellectual achievement and entitles them to immediate employment in a government job as an environmental protection dictator.”

Isn’t it peculiar then that these same people held, at apparently a very fundamental level, that George W. Bush was a blithering idiot?

I mean, REALLY, he went to YALE, y’know!

Maybe it was that he, like Sarah Palin, “talks funny”.

That would not surprise me coming from the spiritual home of the Kennedy-worshippers,(who did NOT “talk funny”).
When one is imbued with monarchism, I suppose one also falls prey to the other wee foibles that our Dear English Cousins are prone to.
Despising each other for their accents being one of them.

(For my part, I wish all those Limeys would learn to speak proper American! Like Barney Frank does.)

And every time they pile on to something like ‘palm gate’ or ‘bracelet gate’ they increase her stature.

There is something about her charisma (Mrs. Palin is an ‘It Girl’) that causes her political opponents to go berserk. Is it that she keeps on keeping on? If so, her opponents ought to look closely at George Washington’s campaign form Long Island to Morristown, and realize that sometimes keeping on is the correct strategy.

Find Palin’s interview with Larry Kramer (or was it Kudlow?) when she made that energy deal with Canada and Exxon/Mobil. She’s very bright, but she doesn’t try to baffle us with bullsh*t as the “intellectually curious” will when talking abvout things of which they know nothing.

As any successful leader – military, business, or government – will tell you, the secret to effective leadership is not to be “the smartest guy in the room.” The secret is to know there are smarter guys than you — and hire them.

You don’t know whether she is intellectually curious or not. You just know she went to Iowa State or wherever and sounds like a midwestern clod to you. Tell you what. As a former resident of the Main Line, I will undertake to teach Ms. Palin to speak with a Bryn Mawr accent. Then she can say, at the next Couric interview, “Kaaaathy, dahling! One simply does not have time for the print media! It is soooo pedestrian, don’t you know!”

@Neo-neocon and Cupid
People like you aren’t going to be satisfied until society has completely flipped into a female dominated power structure. The notion that misogyny is widespread in the US is just absurd, there are virtually no areas left where women aren’t on a level playing field(except in some delusional minds, which insist that women still walk uphill through the snow, both ways!).

Guess what, it’s not 1905 anymore, women can vote, and work, and make the same wages as men. It’s oddly humorous, and also sad, that an article about a woman as accomplished as Sarah Palin, still manages to trot out the old MISOGYNY card in both the blog and comments. Too bad she’s white, otherwise you could bring out RACIST too.

I voted for McCain/Palin because I did see what this administration would do and I stick with what the party put up for us to vote for. When McCain picked her it was a cynical response to what was going on in the race. The only thing she brought to the ticket were good looks. I didn’t care for her schtick then – don’t like it any better now.

I don’t want to waste another vote in this manner. Get us a real candidate that can win. As for those who want to treat any criticism of Palin as though they are attacking America, your mom or your sister. Get over it. It makes you look like idiots. Toughen up – find us a real candidate.

Don’t know about you guys but I am curiously reassured by the visceral, unthinking,’ORGANISED?’hatred expressed constantly and illogically by the moonbat left and indeed some elitist right wingers too who really should know better.
If they did not hate her so blindly and in such a knee jerk way it would mean they were not afraid of her as they so clearly are. Anyone left wing moonbats and right wing elitists hate is OK in my book.

Out with the out crowd: No Supr Bowl ad received more hype than the Tebow ad. Turns out it was the least watch ad of the day. This is the danger ou all face (and ignore) – mistaking zeal for relevance. We just don’t care. Bring on the frustration.

91. skeeziks:
Your messiah got his start in politics turning tricks for a slumlord. Why would it surprise anyone that he stepped up to the Mic and did some lip service for Chavez, Ahmadenijad, and Putin?
Your messiah is the stupidity, weakness, and effeminacy that self hating adult children have been craving when they’re not cutting themselves.
But here’s a newsflash: All of his excuses are drying up like a slug on the hood of a car.
It’s his deficit.
It’s his failures for foreign policy…
And it will be our spit in his face in the next two elections!

I’ve said before this that the proper response to “liberal” elitism is public ridicule. Alinsky was right at least about this much: make sure they’re talking about what you want. In addition, fragile egos cannot withstand being made to look foolish. And when’s the last time you met a healthy Leftie?

Imagine if every time Obama said “Let me be clear,” the crowd reacted to it like it’s a punch line. Check out Milton Berle with Richard Pryor sometime. On a ’70s talk show, Uncle Miltie started bloviating about “All you young guys don’t know anything about comedy.” Pryor got the giggles, and Berle came apart. The angrier he got, the more Richie got helpless, and could only respond “No, man, I’m not laughing at you. Really.”

Ah Skeez, you make another “highly educated” observation – completely wrong but poignant. I’ll bet you’re one of those liberal arts guys from Ivy with a 4.0, aren’t you?

Here is a head’s up Skeez. Who cares if the Tebow add the least watched? It generated all the conversation it needed to be the add was paid. ESPN alone generated dozens of articles. Had the commercial never been shown, it generated all the notice it needed.

Cheer up! Joe Biden said tonight that Iraq a raging success for this administration – maybe the greatest success. The fact that they’ve had nothing to do with the success, and in fact both Jolting Joe and Benevolent Barack voted against the surge, notwithstanding.

Couldn’t you at least get one parting cheap shot at Sarah’s kids in there somewhere for old times sake?

Out with the out crowd: No Supr Bowl ad received more hype than the Tebow ad. Turns out it was the least watch ad of the day. This is the danger ou all face (and ignore) – mistaking zeal for relevance. We just don’t care. Bring on the frustration.

I’m sorry. Was that English? “least watch ad”? And Sarah’s the stupid one…

Actually, I think it’s a sign of intelligence not to read newspapers. I can’t name a single newspaper I read because I don’t read them, simply because they are not worth reading. And I am a practicing lawyer who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley, I got my Juris Doctor law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, and I passed the Florida and California Bar exams on my first try. But I can’t name a single newspaper I read. I must not be very bright, either!

#101 Mark S – Seriously, now, what if that were true? I don’t care what she says.

Look at her record of accomplishments as a politician. Just look at how perfectly her book roll-out went! Look how shrewdly she’s rebuilding her national image. She’s up to the mid-40′s in approval rate, and still climbing. Wouldn’t surprise me to find that she has surpassed Obama in approval ratings. She’s doing everything right. She is SHREWD!

The woman knows how to DO things! You focus on the words. I’ll focus on the deeds, thank you.

You Palin morons are hilarious – The woman is one of the most obvious shills in American history.

Has she ever uttered a single comment Bill Kristol hadn’t already written out for her? A Single phrase?

I assume you’ve fact checked your claim? It’s not up to me to do it. But it looks like it’s another case of “just write it and they will suddenly appear as proof” all over again.

Not to mention the problem of Obama’s own teleprompter brain. He apparently doesn’t even have a half to tie behind his back.

No, apart from their base need for a groupist hate object, the Palin fear is exactly because of her threat to “progressive” elitism, which unsurprisingly is based upon nothing whatsoever having to do with the intellect. And the rest of us know this sad little secret they hide only from themselves. I also enjoy watching the elites go bonkers because of their “fear of a strong woman”. They own it, just like all the others they instead try to project upon everyone else. Nice material for a psychological study, eh, Mark?

Scrat give Skeeziks/MOHO a break he, she, it is a Jew Hating self confessed anti American, antisemitic Arab and English is only his second language so cut him some slack please you know he does try hard . Or should that be he is very trying?

Her political record? She quit halfway into her term as governor of Alaska to write a book and be on TV and take in six-figure photo-shoot and speaking fees.

Come on people open your eyes!!!!!!”

As opposed of course to the Obamanations HISTORY ooops sorry no thats all HIDDEN oh well his Senate voting record ooops sorry no just voted PRESENT the MAJORITY of the time. Ahh!!!! well his BRILLIANT School and College Acedemic career ooops!!!!! no that’s all HIDDEN too still there is Illinois Bar record , what do you mean that’s LOST ?????. Well anyway we all know just where he was born, what his fake COLB is not worth the FORGED paper its written on well I never and a COLB is NOT proof of birth in Hawaii just REJISTRATION by a family member that a birth has taken place and no Hospital has ever claimed to be his birth place and no Doctor or midwife has EVER admitted to being at the birth except oof course his PATERNAL Grandmother who was a CHRISTIAN before the election but has just attended the HAJ she says she was at the birth in KENYA but hey she is an Obama so quite likely to be a LIAR too.
So there you have it compared to the TRANSPARENCY that is the BRILLIANT vastly EXPERIENCED Obama’s record there is no contest. Wow you MOONBATS sure know how to make yourselves look complete idiots don’t you.

Give me a break: (87)
The notion that misogyny is widespread in the US is just absurd…
Well I don’t know about the US but I know about misogyny directed at Palin. Why don’t you click on http://palinsexismwatch.blogspot.com/ and take a look? I double dog dare you!
And that was only in 2008!!! There’s been a lot more since.
If you can find any sexist abuse of ANY male political candidate (which is what we are talking about here), please feel free to post it here.

You don’t seem to get it. The tide has already turned against the Obama administration. Not because of Palin’s folksy speeches – but because the truth is now evident to that 10% of the population that actually wanted to believe that Obama could fix everything with his approach.

Anyone want to disagree the populace is more-or-less 45 to 45 with a 10% swing vote?
You can try to deny it but the truth is pretty pretty simple.

That 10% doesn’t hate Palin – they just don’t really like her all that much. Nothing you’re going to do to change that. And I would venture to say about 10% of the 45% on our team wouldn’t mind if she found a new vocation.

You discuss Left wing hatred as if it were some sort of new phenomenon when in point of fact the American Left has been wallowing in extreme hatred for decades. I am a Viet Nam veteran and while it was a long time ago in a far away place, I have never forgotten or forgiven the truly ugly and disgusting epithets used by Left wing and even some moderate journalist’s to describe us and the awful atrocities we allegedly carried out during our term of service. The American Left traffics in visceral hatred of all who disagree with them, just like their European counterparts. I always keep in mind that many committed Leftists both in the US and abroad like to wear a T Shirt with the image of Che Guevara printed on it, one of the worst mass murderer’s of the Twentieth Century. Guevara murdered or caused to be murdered tens of thousands of innocent Cuban men, women, and children either because they identified with the old regime or were believed to be opposing the new Communist regime. Just like Stalin, Mao, or Kim Jong Il Che was a serial mass murdering monster, but still revered by the Left. Just like the Viet Cong or the North Viet Namese Army used torture and mass murder to enforce their will, should the committed American Left ever come to power, a bullet to the back of the head would be the best anyone opposing them could hope for!

People who parrot the Democrat media complex’s smears against Palin are a waste of time. Ignore them. The Thrilla from Wasilla is gradually winning over thinking adults who are paying attention. Sometimes she disappoints, but most of the time she’s on target, influencing public debate with Facebook posts, cheering on the conservative revolution and punking the lamestream media. Let the left continue thinking she’s a dunce, having delusions about the capability of your enemy is fatal. Tough luck, suckers. Palin/Bachmann 2012, you betcha!

Well neo, I’ve been saying the same thing at your site for years, so you know I’m on board with it.

Sameer’s comment that Palin is not very bright is yet another excellent example of her critics revealing their own stupidity by what they focus on to prove she’s not intelligent: she can’t name a newspaper she reads. Hey sameer, I can’t name a newspaper I read either, and I’m past president of the Prometheus Society. How does that fit into your scheme?

So Palin is out with the “in crowd”? That probably works OK for her, since there are more voters in the “out crowd”. Whatever she decides to do, run for office or not, she’ll have plenty of supporters.

Unless Obama can portray himself as a victim, he is soon to be out with the “in crowd” as well. His presidency? It’s all over but the shouting.

The smartest person!
If intelligence is the most important requirement to be a leader why not give a national IQ test and the highest score becomes president. When we say we want the smartest person to be our leader we are equating intelligence with wisdom. Intelligence and wisdom are not the same thing. Intelligence is the ability to excel in academics, to be a good test taker . We all have known intelligent people who could not function successfully in the real world (math professors that can not balance a check book and chemistry professors that can not bake a cake). We want wise leaders. Wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge to life.

Wisdom begins with the fear(reverence) of God. The secular equivalent of wisdom is common since.

A. They hate her because they invested all of their hopes and dreams for the country in someone they didn’t even bother to investigate. Unlike them Sarah Palin sees through the media created mystique of Barack Obama. She has the courage and skill to skewer him on the national stage. Every time she skewers him she reminds them of their stupidity.

Okay, but those aren’t the people you need to convince that you have a viable candidate. The “outcrowd” may have the greatest percentage, but the percentage is maybe 28%-30%. You need to get the 10-15% that are part of those who don’t think of themselves as oppressed populists to join you. And it won’t happen with Palin.

Your analysis of the political landscape is a useful reminder of how this debate will ultimately be decided, and why. I would add a factor, though, to the equation. That is the “motivation” factor. Palin excites a lot of people to participate and vote with a passion and energy they haven’t shown in the past. She of course also inflames those who oppose her, but I suspect that most of those are already politically active or at least vote regularly. Palin, in contrast, is bringing in new blood, somewhat like Obama did. There are a lot of “average” folks out there who think voting is a waste of time. No matter who’s running, it ain’t one of them. A lot of those folks, men and women, identify with her. They haven’t voted in the past because they are lazy or stupid, they simply figured it was a waste of time. She energizes them to turn out. The current liberal attacks on her just strengthen her connection with that group. If her opponents want to defeat her, they need to undermine her connection with average folks.

Here’s a theory:
people (all? some? most?) accuse others of things that they themselves are doing. Perhaps this is some version of guilt, or an attempt to deflect attention. I don’t know. But it seems to be pretty common. Anyway…

So pile on about palm notes to deflect attention from the fact that BO is helpless without TOTUS

Pile on about her lack of knowledge of the outside world to deflect attention from the fact that neither Obmama nor Biden has much

Bracelet thing to deflect attention from lefties dislike/contempt/ hatred of military
etc etc.

What the lefties accuse Palin of is a guide to what they are nervous about

I care less what the radical hate mongers got to say, what folks like Mrs. Palin got to say really matters, they are the folks who will be our next leaders, not some smarmy mouthed opinionated bigoted mouth piece with hatred in their hearts.

Make no mistake there are a new breed of citizen representatives coming, they will be the people who are hired by conservative minded folks, they have our interests in mind, those are the folks who have things of value to say and accomplish. The words of haters and corrupt don’t amount to a bucket of warm piss.
If you believe what they spew, well than they have credibility, if you don’t then they have no power. Just like the power mongers, ruling oligarchy and money grubbers feeding at the public pig trough, they are the power as long as we the people believe they are.
I for one believe We The People, the Will of The People are the only, the true, the supreme power in the USofA. When I grasped this ideal, this instrument of Liberty, I could understand a person like Mrs. Palin, where she is from and where she is going. This empowered me to believe in America like never before, and power it is.
I want my country back, by the grace of God and people all over this great nation, America, it will be so.

You know, another thing about Palin is her cheerfulness. She seems like a happy person who doesn’t take the attacks personally. Reagan was like that, and I don’t mean to compare her to Reagan exactly. I like Sarah, but I’m not sure I want to see her run for the Presidency. I lived 8 years of the Bush hatred, not sure I can take any more of the pure viciousness that the left constantly displays.

104. She quit because the frivolous lawsuits against her were bankrupting her family. She was $400,000 in debt from legal fees, and that debt was rising daily. She had to quit in order to pay off that debt. Admittedly, it’s partly her own fault for signing a law that made it easy to file frivolous lawsuits against Alaska politicians without consequence as a side effect of real anti-corruption legislation.

Sameer, there is not one original thought in politics today. The basic difference in the “intellect” of your heroes and Sarah Palin is that she embraces the philosophies that have worked in history. Obama and company are clutching philosophies that are proven failures.

Couric’s researchers failed to unearth Palin’sr Op Ed opposing the EPA designation of the Polar Bear as endangered species to the Times, which was upheld by the Obama interior department .Or her long standing complaints about the unfairness of the Exxon Valdez verdict, or the fact that her convention speech took on three wrongly decided Supreme Court decisions, on the Gitmo detainee question. The ones that led to Abdulmutallab’s being mirandized in Detroit. And she totally missed Biden’s flub about FDR being on TV in 1929, giving a fireside chat. That’s so wrong on a byzantine level that it defies explanation. That’s par for the course, with Ifill forgetting to admonish Biden taking creditfor the US and France, forcing Hezbollah out of Lebanon??? (actually Syrian intelligence), This is who we have sitting in the Naval Observatory now.

look at this http://vodpod.com/watch/1574861-sarah-palin-on-american-chopper
and ask yourself: would those guys at OCC build a bike for any other politician? Would the politician come across as comfortable with them as Sarah does? I think not, that is why she connects with ordinary people and most politicians come across as the worst type of used car salesman. Actually, I have more respect for used car salesman that I do most politicians.
I work with many PhD and other educated elite, (disclaimer I also have a PhD) and many of them could not find their way out of a paper bad with one end open. I will take someone like Sarah anytime.

Sarah Palin is very wary of the press and their gotcha questions. A simple question like “What do you read?” could be some kind of twisted trap. Gov Palin said she took the question to be a suggestion that she didn’t read and she was rightly insulted and wary. I wouldn’t answer any questions by the press at Nashville. The MSM were so snarky. The questions asked by NPR were along the lines of “There is a lot of animosity and antagonism espoused by the Tea Party movement, what do you think of this?” It was an eye opener to see it and hear it in person. This was NPR. My taxes go to fund this garbage.

She hasn’t shown that she is intellectually curious about the world around her.

As opposed to The Professor, an adherent to a political ideology that 200+ years of history has demonstrated – repeatedly – to be an abject failure.

As for Palin’s political philosophy, it’s simple: the proper role of the US govt – as defined by our governing document, the US Constitution – is to protect the rights of the citizenry from encroachment by other citizens or foreign powers…not to do the encroaching.

#4 David Thomson: There is another reason why the elites fear people like Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh: they cannot compete intellectually! Palin is not a super genius—but she far better educated than Barack Obama. College drop out Limbaugh is one the very best political analysts of our era.

Add Mark Steyn to that list. Mark didn’t even graduate from high school, is self-educated and can run intellectual rings around the Ivy League pointy-heads.

I don’t think there is anything inherently “soft” intellectually about literature. The New Realist School is systematic, but saturation in deconstruction and post-modernism will enervate the rigor of any course of study.

Something like sociology, on the other hand, which is not systematic and lacks basis in irrefutable axioms, must always remain an arbitrary grouping of correlations open to the ideological manipulations of its professors.

Seems to me, in the rush to either condemn or explain Sarah Palin’s note on her hand, the point missed is that most regular folk have written a note on their hand… She seems like one of us – trustworthy.

Sameer,
Agreeing with anthropropgenic global warming and with evolution is possibly a good marker for an ability to be brainwashed by the lamestream media. I’m not sure its such a good marker for intellectualism as the intellectual heft seems to be on the other side.

And it was said of George Washington by one of his peers that he had a second class intellect, but a first class temperment. But you’re right, we should instead go with Richard Nixon, possibly the smartest president of the twencen. After all, IQ is the whole ticket, and nothing but the ticket.

I’m embarrassed to be arguing about something so silly as the idea that we need super-brainy leaders only.

As with the ACES plan, that replaced the fixed PTT franchise fee plan, she takes a look at what needs to be changed, and does it. Doesn’t delegate it
to the legislature. This is how she brought about the AGIA pipeline deal, negotiating with companies and countries. This is the reverse of what was done with the health care plan, because insuring people was not the goal,
creating this overwhelming bureaucracy was the point. That’s how the HHS
secretary or health commissioner becomes the final authority,

Sorry, I’m not looking for an egghead or Ivy League grad (look what that’s got us the past 9 years), I’m just looking for a leader who is intellectually curious about the world. If you cannot name a newspaper you read, I don’t want you to lead my country. If regular Joe Six Packs like myself have no respect for her, you can bet the rest of the world would have less.

Several relatives of mine get their information and opinions (often blended together to diguise the latter is not the former) or talking heads on the alphabet networks. They consider themselves well-informed, but in fact they are only well-informed of the information that people have decided they need to know. I, on the other hand, determine where I want to look for information, and assess the credibility of it. I am not saying I am perfectly informed or perfectly objective in my choices – but they are MY CHOICES. I have not outsourced the management of my view of the world to others.

Liberals in general (and some conservatives as well) then to make various assumptions and then interpret everything in the light of those assumptions. Their ability to bring in new facts and modify those assumptions just is not there.
To many liberals, conservatives are, almost by definition, racist. So everything they do or say can be interpreted in that light. Likewise, a liberal is by definition not a racist. So no matter what they do or say, there has to be an explanation other than racism.
Palin-hatred falls into this category. Once persuaded she is a dumb, simplistic, right-wing whacko, no amount of evidence is likely to change a liberal’s view. Everything she does will be interpreted with those assumptions And, drop the ‘right-wing whacko’, and the same shoe fits a number of conservatives as well (sigh).

#115 Charles Akins–
Spot on. Wisdom trumps intellectualism every time. It used to be that our public schools taught both, but now the gap between those that are “intelligent” and those that have common sense is wider than I’ve ever seen it. What good is knowledge if you don’t know how to use it? (besides using it to beat the rest of us over the head, I mean)

“If I’ve heard once, I’ve heard it a thousand times from beanie headed progressive types. I want somebody for President that is more intelligent than me! ”

I am frequently in the presence by young Ivy League urban elite “progressives.” They act like a high-school clique, they all think the same, they all went to the same prep schools, and they are deeply intellectually uncurious about anyone unlike themselves. At the same time they all pat themselves on the back about how much they care about “diversity.”

One thing I find amusing is that one type of diversity they would heartily endorse (I do too): the idea that there are many kinds of intelligence and all are useful. Of course for them this is an argument for affirmative action and dumbed down college courses. If you are of an approved minority group and get into Harvard, bad grades are a manifestation of “the system.” But Sarah Palin is “dumb” because she went to several state colleges before graduating. The fact that she was a small business owner, and is a savvy politician and good governor is trumped by her “non-intellectualism.” (You also need some smarts to successfully hunt moose, which is a different kind of smarts from governing a state, which is different kind of smarts than academic excellence.)

These people also prattle about “social justice,” which means picking a fad (Darfur) and dropping it a year later for…I don’t know what the next one was…electing Obama? And of course they are so intellectually advanced that they fell rapturously in love with that demagogue, hook line & sinker. No critical intelligence at all! (Oh yeah, another type of intelligence that academia doesn’t support as much as it likes to pretend.)

I hope they grow up, but their parents and teachers are usually the same, so little hope there (although sometimes once you have kids you start seeing the world a bit differently).

This whole Hate Palin fest is totally phony and trumped up. If she had done everything exactly the same, but was a Democrat, she would be championed by liberals as the future of the party. But because she is with the “other” party, they hate her. Liberals are hate merchants, riven with class snobbery racism, sexism, and all the things that they accuse Republicans of, and they should be called out on it every time.

#144 Yehudit:
“I am frequently in the presence by young Ivy League urban elite “progressives.”

You work at an unemployment insurance office? Manage a Domino’s Pizza? You’re a leg-breaker for a bookie?
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)

“(You also need some smarts to successfully hunt moose, which is a different kind of smarts from governing a state, ”

I’m not so sure that that would be so. I’d think that there would be rather more applicability between the two than might first appear.
As I understand it, there’s two ways to hunt moose.

The first is to shoot the thing in the vital areas with a large caliber rifle so that it dies relatively quickly.

The other is to ding it with a small caliber rifle, follow it until slows down, then shoot it again, follow it again, shoot it again, repeat the process until it bleeds out or collapses from shock and exhaustion.

Call me crazy, but I think there’s State Capitol applications to both approaches.

I’m new to this page/site, but find it quite witty and interesting, I’ll drop by often. Now to the point I wanted to make:
__________________
@ #64 Sundog:
ETAB asks: “#30 Sameer – what does ‘intellectual’ and ‘anti-intellectual’ mean? I’ve noticed these words tossed around quite a bit lately but I wonder what people mean by them.”

Allow me to explain. These are just fancy terms for “smart” and “stupid”. But they’re really code words for “Democrat” and “Republican”. Being a Democrat automatically makes you a genius, and being a Republican makes you a moron. I know that sounds silly, but it’s how people on the left think.
__________________

Well, if I may explain a little further: all the above are ultimately code words for the more lengthy expressions “I live off your taxes” and “you pay taxes” or even more bluntly: “I’m the boss” and “you’re the sucker.” I could go on, but we all get the drift.

Rain-Monkey you are either going to very unusual liberal sights or you are a plant. You have seen nothing in the way of hatred until you going to HuffPuff and the other big liberal sights.

Progressive is just another dodge for the liberals since the liberal label has become rather tainted. No they don’t hate or fear change, they hate and fear the American spirit as it has been for the last 230 years and want us to be passive citizens of EU West.

Sameer says: “I’m just looking for a leader who is intellectually curious about the world. If you cannot name a newspaper you read, I don’t want you to lead my country”

Sameer, what do newspapers have to do with curiosity about the world? If you are curious, don’t you want accurate, reliable, and truthful information? Why would you go to a newspaper for that? Do you go to a dumpster for nutritious and healthful cuisine?

The thing I *love* the most about Palin is her mere existance, and how it makes the lefties get all twisted and bent out of shape. I’ve stopped trying to counter their claims with points of reason or rationality; I just let them go on. The key is to not answer any questions they may ask you of Palin — whether they seek agreement or arugment, your response and participation in discussion is, all too often, soley for validition of their existing view. Instead let them elaborate, in their own words, why they hate Palin so much. Inevitability, they grow tired, wear themselves out, and move on to a different topic… much like my 3-year old nephew throwing a tantrum and, viewed with detachment, just as entertaining.

Again, embrace her all you want. I would love for her to be the 2012 Republican candidate for President. *Love* it.

Posit this: Obama administration is the one keeping her in the media, feeding people like you who rabidly defend this woman as being the most supercapable anything ever. The more the MSM taunts her, the fiercer you become. And as that continues, you will overlook more qualified candidates and continue to choose the down-home, folksy lady who bans press from her events and shirks away from any serious criticism while playing the victim card.

Your zeal is doing more to ensure Obama a second term than anything else could.

Mark S. wrote: “Her political record? She quit halfway into her term as governor of Alaska to write a book and be on TV and take in six-figure photo-shoot and speaking fees.”

She resigned for the good of her office. The avalanche of ‘ethics’ charges were using up time and resources and preventing her from doing the job she was elected to do. Read her book, pages 374 to 378. Especially “…I knew that if I resigned, it might very well end any future political career.” And, “In the end, I decided, politically speaking, if I die, I die. I had to do the right thing.” Her resignation demonstrated political integrity of the highest order.

Imagine if Tonya Harding had picked a more vicious and competent thug, and actually suceeded in permanently wrecking Nancy Kerrigan’s knees? Would you lot have sneered “Quitter!!” at Kerrigan for withdrawing from ice-skating competition?

Sameer says: “I’m just looking for a leader who is intellectually curious about the world.”

Such curiosity is a valuable trait, no doubt, but it alone is too low a bar to gain access to the most powerful seat in the world. Some of us would prefer a leader who holds executive experience, is decisive, demonstrates a command presence and acknowledges the responsibilities incumbant with such command, considers multiple (even if conflicting) points of view, delegates tasks well, exercises sound judgement as *to whom* he distributes those tasks, and remains cool under pressure… among other things.

Hi monkey: have you ever been over to “Huff and Puff,” or “Daily Puss” sites? Speaking about “being angry,” let alone “hateful,” they have elevated them into science, and offer on top free lessons on how to.

The difference we go after Obama on mostly policy and personnel, they go after Sarah, more often then not, but events that couldn’t have happened
or are terribly distorted (the bracelet controversy, to cite one example)
and yes we catch his flubs which are quite often, and are often ignored by
the press

#158 Scott E.
“don’t give a hoot about her intellectual curiosity – I just want to make sure we choose electable leaders – and she is not electable on the national level. So let’s move on.”

No, just hold on a minute. Would you mind explaining why you feel that she isn’t electable at national level specifically?

I tend to agree with you, but I ‘m also very open-minded about the fact that there are over two years to go before the next Presidential, and she has a very good chance to grow into the role.

From your tone, it seems that you are way too ready to close the door in her face forever, and that might be an absolute tragedy we’ll never know the depth of…like had Bob Dole or George HW Bush gotten the nomination in 1980 instead of Reagan.

Whatever your motives for adjudging her not ready, I’d simply urge you to keep an open mind and give her a chance.

I suspect that with the right guidance, Sarah Palin may be like a fine whiskey, improving with age.

Let the moonbats be the impatient instant gratification children, demanding that their Savior du Jour be all things and sate all their whims immediately.
(That’s why there’s nothing more pathetic than a failed Democratic presidential nominee, except maybe a succesful one).

All you highly intelligent folks out there have absolutely no idea what the heck is really going on at all. That is quite amusing to an uneducated carpenter who knows better than to waste his time talking to such over educated, non practicing, non business orientated, non producing, theoretical fools as yourselves. Work produces, you folks leech of the real work. Your non productive and without any real usefullness other than to take what you’ve not earned. You are parasites sucking the blood of your capital creating hosts. Sarah Palin is good people, while she may not be the solution, she surely is a comforting step in the right direction. James

Sarah Palin reminds me of Andrew Jackson. And its that “will” that drives the leftards and progressives insane. i am looking forward to the day that she makes their eyes squirt with blood, heads explode, just outright self distruct.

Do many unfairly attack Palin for just about everything imaginable?
Yes.

Do many here do the same to Obama all the time?
Yes

OK, now what?

Figure that out for yourself. Hint: start by deconstructing your useless argument, because that’s all it was. Try to see why it was useless. Start with the obvious fact that it was not a correct understanding or summary of the blog topic. You’ll feel much better.

Judging from all the comments here, I would say you have it backwards. Her critics have brought up valid, coherent points on why she exhibits poor leadership skills and a lack of intellectual curiosity about the world. On the other hand, her defenders have been jumping down our throats, making all sorts of wild accusations, personal attacks and prejudicial comments about liberalism.

I just turned off an NPR show I usually enjoy, “Wait, Wait – Don’t Tell Me!” The host, Peter Segal made a quip about Sarah Palin writing speaking notes on her hand, that then turned into a running joke that went on for what seemed like several minutes. One of the panelists actually defended her, saying she did that herself, which actually seemed to encourage Segal to tell another Palin joke or two, in a demeaning squeaky voice. I think there is nothing sadder than listening to a person who is obviously intelligent stoop to making snide remarks about someone because he thinks it makes him seem sophisticated. It actually makes him seem intellectually lazy, not to mention dishonest. You will never hear jokes about the 57 US states, teleprompters, or “corpse-men” on this show, but nary a week passes without a swipe at Palin.

I have to agree with skeeziks and the moderators of that panel. Palin, after all, positioned herself as a straight talker and mocked the president for using notes, when she in fact not only had notes on her hand, but does not know her own personal political philosophy off the top of her head. I won’t knock her for using notes if she doesn’t mock other politicians for using notes. Except that she did.

Presidential material she ain’t. I want someone with intellectual consistency.

> Judging from all the comments here, I would say you have it backwards. Her critics have brought up valid, coherent points on why she exhibits poor leadership skills and a lack of intellectual curiosity about the world.

Claiming facts not in evidence, without any attempt at attribution to justify the claim. Thus, a claim without merit.

> On the other hand, her defenders have been jumping down our throats, making all sorts of wild accusations, personal attacks and prejudicial comments about liberalism.

Again, without noting any specific examples to provide a basis for argument. So, another claim without merit.

There are lots of claims, comments, and accusations one can make about liberals and lefties and greens which are blatantly self-evident to anyone who’s actually paying attention. Some of them will be personal and “prejudicial”, but this does not affect the truth value of the claims, comments, and accusations.

If you actually pointed someone to a few examples for either of the above, it would be possible to refute you.

As it is, you’ve just made… “wild accusations and prejudicial comments”.

Sameer sez: “Her critics have brought up valid, coherent points on why she exhibits poor leadership skills and a lack of intellectual curiosity about the world…”

Why would anyone with genuine ‘intellectual curiosity about the world’ rely on newspapers? Other than an exercise in observing pathological behavior, the data one seeks just isn’t there. It is like looking for your dinner in a dumpster. Why waste your time? There are far better ways to learn and to “… follow knowledge, like a sinking star, Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.” (lit. trivia point if you can identify the quotation)

I haven’t wasted time on newspapers in years and years. If there is some bit of gold amidst the stinking refuse, well, I have the internet to fish it out and present it to me. I read all the time, Sameer. My time is limited, so I don’t waste it reading what has proved to be worthless: Newspapers, and rags like Time and Newsweek.

Other than the ‘intellectual curiousity’ smear, you say that Palin exhibits ‘poor leadership skills’. You need to flesh that out a bit. That isn’t even an indictment. It’s just Sameer flapping his gums.

You guys are wasting time with Sameer. Note the name. Proper spelling is Samir. Common Arabic(?) name. He’s not interested in dialogue. He ignores our counter-arguments, never even addressing them. The usual lying Mohammedan nonsense. They are incapable of using logic or honesty.

As if these venomous cretins care one whit about soldiers living or dying, and as if the ‘last full measure of devotion’ is something they actually respect.
Let me tell you all something. I went to college in the late Sixties, and I have lived in close contact with these people and their evil spawn for forty years. I have always known it would come to this, and it has. But what I did not anticipate was that the reaction from a benumbed public would be as swift and sure as it is. Mark my words, the Augean Stables of the progressive establishment are about to be flushed. Whether their depredations can be undone remains to be seen; but there will be no more of them.

148. Of course so-called progressives hate and fear change. They hate and fear real reform to the system to hold people accountable. They hate and fear an end to the welfare state. They hate God and any effort to get people to turn to Him.

And by us, I mean absolutely anyone who shares ANY of her oft-criticized characteristics. Are you pro-life? Unimpressed by the full-of-themselves pseudo-intelligentia? Do you love God? Believe in hard work? Are you from a geographical area that is either rural, in a low-population, and/or non-coastal? Didn’t go to an ivy league school? Do you eat meat? Do you eat meat AND hunt for or raise it? Are you opposed to affirmative action? Etc, etc.

Palin serves a useful function for the Left. It’s still not fully acceptable to publicly express deep hatred of ordinary citizens who are conservative. So they express their hatred of US by projecting it onto her, a public figure.

Do you believe in freedom of religion and not just freedom for one religion? Do you believe in personal privacy? In the right to be free from unlawful search and seizure? Do you believe we shouldn’t torture people? Do you believe in a woman’s right to choose? Are you unimpressed by the phony baloney “real Americans” who think the only qualification necessary to hold public office is driving a pickup truck? Do you believe that there is still discrimination that prevents equal opportunity in this country? Are you from an area where other people are from too? Did you go to a public school? Would you ever volunteer to be waterboarded for charity and then welch on the promise? If you assembled the families of every US serviceperson killed or maimed in Iraq and you said, “Based on what you know now, if we could turn back the clock and not go into Iraq, would you do it?” do you believe they would?

No, it’s not liberals who the conservatives hate. It’s the U.S. It’s our military. It’s our future. It’s the fact that they’re not in power – THAT is the ONLY thing conservatives care about.

The issue about Sarah Palin seems to be common sense versus intellect. Common sense is defined as good sense and sound judgement in practical matters. Intellect is reasoning or understanding objectively, especially with regard to abstract or academic matters. Who would be best qualified to make judgements and decisions with regard to the direction of the country? A person who is equipped to deal with practical matters or a person who is lost in abstract or academic matters? It seems that Sarah Palin wins hands down over BHO and most of the rest of the Democratic policy wonks.